The Chief Minister for the ACT, and Minister for Tourism and Events, Andrew Barr MLA launched the Canberra International Film Festival (CIFF) which is in its 19th year at the National Film and Sound Archive, Acton.
The Chief Minister switched on the large neon film festival sign which was constructed this year to mark the bright new direction of the 2015 festival, held from November 5-15 and the Festival opening film, Neon, by film-maker Lawrence Johnson and local production company, WildBear Entertainment.
“I want the community to again fall in love with this festival and feel that they truly own it.” Andrew Pike, Manager of the Festival, and former manager of Electric Shadows Cinema said “The 2015 program is not standard cinema fare. These aren’t the sort of films you could wander into a normal Friday night session and see. For the first time, we are including a selection of Canberra films in our program. This is a key component of the future direction of the festival. We will be an internationally recognised platform for Canberra film-makers.”
Mr. Pike explained that from the illegally produced Tehran Taxi which the film-maker smuggled out of the country and entered into film festivals at great personal risk, to the R rated film, The Tribe, communicated entirely in sign language – every single film in the 2015 festival will astound.

Some of the movies being screened during the festival include:

Sunny and the Dark Horse Directed by David and Judith Macdougall
The Shiralee (1957) Directed by Leslie Norman
Network Directed by Sidney Lumet
A time to live, A time to die Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
The Assassins Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
The Tentmakers of Cairo Directed by Kim Beamish
25 April Directed by Leanne Pooley

For More Information about the CIFF